It's a dynastic Hendrick team

Rick Hendrick walks through the Daytona garage, his shirt neatly pressed and tucked in, his hat squarely centered on his head and a perpetual smile on his face.

He stops to shake hands, chat with colleagues and check on his race team.

He makes it all look so easy, too.

Maybe it is, especially with his collection of talent.

After winning three consecutive Cup championships and eight of the past 14, NASCAR's premier program enters the Daytona 500 with maybe the deepest team in the sport's five decades.

Mark Martin, a 50-year-old workout fanatic who's considered the best driver never to win a title, joins four-time champion Jeff Gordon, three-time defending champ Jimmie Johnson and fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. this season — giving Hendrick Motorsports a lineup so stacked it might make the New York Yankees jealous.

"I never would have thought that we would ever have a lineup like this or any team would ever have a lineup like this," said Alan Gustafson, Martin's crew chief. "The stars aligned, the opportunities were there."

Hendrick started All-Star Racing in 1984 — it would be much a much more appropriate name these days — in a 5,000-square foot building that had just enough room for his five full-time employees. He thought he had a chance to field a team for Richard Petty, but the deal fell through just before the Daytona 500. Hendrick had no driver, no sponsor and not much time to find another one.

He ended up going with Geoff Bodine. They got to Daytona, finished eighth and added top-10 finishes in the next two events. Money was running tight, though, and Hendrick didn't think he'd make it much longer without a sponsor. Workers persuaded him to press on, and Bodine won at Martinsville.

Hendrick was offered full sponsorship in Victory Lane, a deal that jump-started a career that includes more than 200 race wins and 13 championships in three series.

"It's keeping people on the same page and letting them take pride in the company," Hendrick said.

"I tell them all the time, 'It's your company. You built it. It's up to us to keep it together and make it work.'

"People buy into that because it's true. The key to our success has been that I don't take our people for granted and I put a heavy, heavy emphasis of taking care of them. I have a philosophy that if people don't think you care about them, they sure as hell aren't going to care about you."

Hendrick's first Cup championship came with Gordon in 1995, the start of a run rarely seen in professional sports. Maybe the NBA's Boston Celtics (1957-69) or Chicago Bulls (1991-98), the NHL's Montreal Canadians (1956-60), the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers (1974-79) or the Yankees (1947-62) would be fair comparisons.

It starts with Johnson, who overcame a slow start last season to match Cale Yarborough as the only drivers in NASCAR history to win three straight Cup titles.

Gordon was winless for the first time in his career in 2008 but Hendrick guaranteed he would win a race this season. Earnhardt came onboard last season, replacing Kyle Busch.

Martin could make the team even better after coming out of partial retirement in hopes of making a run at the championship that has eluded him for the last 26 years.